Two examples of bad photography decisions:
• The City of Toronto’s web site has a page promoting its new Pan Am BMX course that was used in the recent 2015 Pan Am Games. The photo shows a number of female competitors lined up at the starting gate.
The problems with the photo are that the event shown is not from the Pan Am Games, the track is not the city’s new BMX course and the location isn’t even in Toronto. Oops.
Some sports web sites in South America assumed this really was a Pan Am photo and used it in their news articles about the Pan Am BMX event. To be fair, those South American web sites were probably confused since the Toronto Pan Am Games itself initially used the same handout(?) picture on its BMX pages. Oops.
The city’s new BMX venue was in operation long before the Games opened. There was plenty of time for real photography. Unlike some other municipalities that did hire photographers to shoot their venues, Toronto could’ve supported a small business by hiring a local photographer to do the job right. But no.
• The Ontario provincial government today ran a half-page photo ad in The Globe and Mail to promote the fact that various Pan Am venues will be available for public use after the Games end.
The photo used in the ad, seemingly from the Milton velodrome ($225/hour to rent the track), might look a bit odd. The people don’t quite match in size or perspective, the lighting and shadows are off, the blue banner on the floor looks weird, the “finish line” doesn’t match the track, the depth of field is unusual and the crowd in the background isn’t right:
While it may be difficult to see in the small photo above, by looking at the original ad, it’s pretty obvious that the picture is a composite of several images and at least the camera flashes and the finish line were painted in.
The Milton velodrome was up and running well before the Games started. There was plenty of time to hire a photographer to do real photography. The Ontario provincial government could’ve chosen to support a small business by hiring a local photographer. But no.
